Listings of Original Hawaii Paintings and Hawaiian Art prints are listed at left
hand of the page.

What Every artist needs to know about
color, paint and how to mix it. Samples and instruction on mixing
Primary color, Secondary color and tertiary colors. How to use a color
wheel, understand paint quality, good and bad pigments.

Born in Ottawa Canada Don now resides in
Hawaii and is now a U. S. Citizen, His Hawaiian Artwork signed D. Hall is collected
internationally and is very popular among those who like to see beauty
directly without the need for further explanation.

Don is also an accomplished sculptor,
jewelry designer, gold and Silversmith and was owner of Diana Creations Ltd. a
chain of Jewelry stores featuring his original designs. The company was
named in honor of Don's wife Diane. Arthritis has taken the ability to
sculpt and work with metal away from him but with the encouragement and
inspiration of his wife of over 44 years Don now concentrates on his
painting, Teaching and has published his book, "Artists Color Mixing
Handbook, what every artist needs to know about paint and mixing it".

"The rhythm of life has a powerful beat.
In today's fast pace of life its important that we take the extra time to
share this beauty of the world. It's incredibly fulfilling to do what I feel
I came to Earth to do and be one of those to share this beauty with you.,
Aloha."

"Ultimately, I want individuals to feel
what I felt at the time I produce my Hawaii Paintings. And whatever the scene happens
to be in a painting, I want them to look beyond that and find other things
in the painting they can relate to. It is my attempt to connect to you on a
personal level."

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Hawaii art -
Hawaii art Paintings and Hawaii art prints for sale

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Donald K Hall talks about his art and
ideas:

"My approach to art, painting, and
philosophy of life in general is a picture is worth a thousand words. My
paintings are fueled by my bond to the land, (in Hawaiian the Aina). My art is
not sophisticated, but is as I see it. speaking with a quiet voice to and from
fundamental color and form."

The "art scene " in Hawaii is pre-occupied
with "Postcard art"... art that addresses current locations and time as
souvenirs or I was here Holiday images. I would like to think of my Hawaii Art work as art of the "eternal now",
a state where one becomes one with the experience of the Hawaiian moment.

My abstract art Attempts to draw on an
inner world and produce the most absorbing color paintings that bring across the
feeling of a highly beautiful transcendental universe. Are my works
masterpieces? Well, maybe some of them - indeed respected artists have told me
when visiting my studio - "This work is a masterpiece - do not sell it, at least
not for a low sum. It is hard for me to say what is a masterpiece - especially in
this day and age when the focus on the quality of workmanship and craftsmanship
in art has changed. Are there masterpieces being produced today? Have I painted
a masterpiece? This is not for me to say, and only for history to judge,
which I hope will be kind to me.

Trees: Banyan Trees, Palm Trees, Koa
Trees, Mankind has a connection with trees since the earliest time... this is
born out in Bible with the references to the different trees in the Garden of
Eden. The tree paintings are an allusion to the human condition... roots anchored
in the ground, head in the heavens... arms (branches) reaching to the sky. The
paintings of my Hawaii trees are an exploration... the search continues.... painting trees is not related to the ethnic group from which
an artist comes.
Is this "Hawaiian Art? Most Definitely, as the term "Hawaiian Art" and "Hawaiian
Painting" defines the geographical location from where the art comes, and since
the work is of the Hawaiian landscape, this also relates to the content of the
paintings.

Plein air: Working directly from Hawaiian nature,
from direct observation is the essence of plein air painting. Nature is the
teacher, provides the answers, lighting, color, lightness and darkness and
values. No need to invent - rather, in plein air, not to impose the artist's ego
on nature, yet to be receptive, observant. In plein air, through developing the
powers of observation, a greater sensitivity to visual reality emerges.

Portraits: I paint faces but not
portraits. The human face is possibly of the most fascinating landscape, each
line, shape and angle revealing a lifetime of experience, thought and emotion.
It is all there - I just have to look and put it down on the canvas, Normally, I may not gaze at a person's face, as it is impolite, disrespectful and elicits
difficult responses. Yet, the portrait painter receives a license to do this,
and in painting the paintings are the record, the universal spirit recognized in
all beings and creation. From this level of awareness, phenomenal manifestation
of the play of the forces existent in creation. Beyond.

Expressionist: I see this as but mere
labels, tags, attached names, which people fight over and in a more fundamental
level of reality have no real existence, but are mere appended labels. Is there
really "Hawaiian art", or is their just "art" per se with no labeling? Is there
a "Hawaiian artist or Hawaii Artist" or is there just an artist? When you
contemplate an artist or any human being, he/she is only a human... there is
nothing "more Discerned in his/her biology. So one producing "Hawaiian art" or
"Any art" is producing art whose content transcends the labels of "Hawaiian art"
or "any other art". Universal art is the basis. Critics and political beings may
attach the labels. Shouldn't we strive for that which is pure?

Painting is not dead, nor should working
with paint on canvas be considered anachronistic. The tradition of painting is a
continuing and developing one. Progress is yet to be made, building on the work
of the great painters of the not-too-distant past.

It would seem that the advent of the
"ready-made" earlier in the last century, has usurped the value of craftsmanship
in art. I believe that this is a detour from the path. It is only a matter of
time in which innovation for the sake of innovation alone will fall by the
wayside. The true values of art will survive, as art strives for eternity.

My landscapes are both painted in the
open air and my studio. The work progresses through the direct process of
observing nature. Opening the eyes so greater depths of color and spatial
relationship appear. While in the field, what takes place on the canvas seems as
a reduced reflection of all that I experienc. Yet when viewed back in the
confines of my studio, it is clear that the canvas has brought back the
vitality of a greater experience.

Sometimes I feel that it is the
landscape or Seascape , which has painted itself, not by me. I have been but a
facilitator
through which the landscape has been painted as a record recorded of its
presence.

One of the joys of painting is the
endless combination that the paint, color and texture manifest on the canvas.
When successfully different colors go into collaboration or oscillation with each
other. Layers of paint are built up with various degrees of transparency
creating unpredictable effects. I like a good, textured painting which
gives me the sense that there is something more than the image itself. Monet is
said to have put each canvas aside, and pulled it out when the particular
atmospheric/lighting effect appeared. A particular canvas was earmarked for only
a certain atmospheric effect, and thus he would not work on it under a set of
conditions different than those he had decided to be suitable for that piece.
This is wild, but I haven't completely figured it out as yet, however I do leave
the painting out in my studio and view it for a time before I release it for
sale..

I have continued with the same canvas
under varied conditions, all of these conditions adding up in terms of layers of
paint, one over the other, contributing to an unforeseen final mood which is
born from all the different painting sessions coming into harmony not without
conflict having taken place between these same layers/sessions, and their traces
evident along with their resolution. I have held back some canvases for over
fifteen years waiting for the right moment to finish it Hawaiian Reef #42
Humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua'a is one of them .

Time seems to be an indispensable element
of the work. Time has no meaning. The span of time from the beginning of the
canvas until the realization of its completion has no predetermined time line.
Time is necessary to see all the subtleties in the work and develop the feeling
for what alterations or modifications are to be made for all the parts of the
painting to live together in harmony.
I am often been asked, "how much time did it take to paint this, or how long
does it take to paint a painting". I actually don't know, I do not keep track.

Time is necessary for
separating the painter's labor of the painting from the intensity of feelings
that accompanied the act of bringing the raw unfinished painting to be
on the canvas. The earlier stage is identified with the stimuli outside of
the canvas, and during that period, when viewing the painting, I will see more
the external stimuli, than the work itself on the canvas. This could be for
better or for worse... Yet, the same canvas may communicate absolutely nothing
to another viewer. Thus, only once I have put the work out of sight and over
the course of time allowed that memory of the experience to fade, then I
would be able to once again look at the work and see it on its own merits and
make decisions on how to proceed.

It would seem that this passage of time
is in effect another layer of paint - in this case invisible, but not entirely
intangible - which goes on to the canvas and becomes part of the totality of
the work.

Most of the paintings are for sale. An
artist must survive, and as such I must sell my works to buy time to create new
paintings. So, please be encouraged to purchase my works and become a part of this
creative process.

Paintings that are no longer available
are indicated in the caption below the image as being sold, however, if prints
are available it will be indicated.

About lighting: Light is the key -
lighting varies with time of day and accents different shapes and features.
Light through clouds like a spot light on one area of the landscape highlighting
it in contrast to the surroundings. Lighting of the paintings is of utmost
importance - good lighting will make the painting work, poor lighting will hide
what is there. Atmospheric factors change the light and the softness or hardness
of view.

Monet, Gauguin and the Impressionists including
greats like Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot showed us to connect with nature in a
fresh way. Kandinsky showed us the Spiritual in Art to be true to our inner
self.

Modern Impressionist painting and
impressionism in landscape painting and landscape paintings also has elements of
expressionism and/or expressionist tendencies contemporary art. Figurative art
and figurative painting is a non-abstract where the paintings are a window to
the world. Representational art and representational paintings more
specifically.

The sky in paintings of sky and clouds:
the clouds are painted from living moving clouds whose life leaves traces with
the oil paint on the canvas.

Abstract and Figurative Art On one level
all art is abstract, for a painting to work, it must have certain compositional
qualities of color, form, texture, light and shade flow, etc. which are
essentially abstract. Yet, we often in our imagination see figures in abstract
art. The figurative has great hold on the mind, and I admit to my personal
near-enslavement to the form and figurative of the tangible. Having said that, I
have a great love and respect for good abstract art, and indeed envy those
artists who can produce from within themselves, work which is freed from the
form and figure, yet whose harmonies trigger off such a wonderful reaction in
the viewer.

Will the power holding - individuals in
the art world recognize a painting, which is art for art's sake? If there is no
social-political connotation. Is art for art's sake doomed? You can make the
difference!